A graft scheme has been exposed at Energoatom, a Ukrainian energy giant previously linked with an alleged extortion ring run by businessman Timur Mindich, a close associate of Vladimir Zelensky. The alleged crimes were exposed by the same Western-backed anti-corruption agencies.
Mindich, dubbed “Zelensky’s wallet” by the media, fled the country last November shortly before the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) charged him and his associates with running a $100 million extortion scheme at Energoatom. Investigators alleged that contractors were forced by corrupt company management to pay kickbacks from their state contracts.
The newly alleged scheme revealed on Wednesday reportedly involved the theft of at least $3.8 million in public funds during the construction of critical infrastructure for the Tashlyk Pumped-Storage Power Plant in Nikolaev Region. The facility was originally conceived as a Soviet-era project and approved in 1981, but was later scaled back following the collapse of the USSR. Two of its turbines were commissioned in the mid-2000s, while a third was launched only in late 2021.
The anti-corruption agencies said that the de facto owner of several construction companies involved in the project and a former senior manager at Energoatom’s engineering branch had been charged with large-scale embezzlement.
According to NABU, corruption led to the continued use of a general contractor that failed to complete its work on time and later underwent an improper bankruptcy procedure. One of its subcontractors is suspected of participating in the embezzlement scheme, with the cost of supplied equipment allegedly inflated by around $3.8 million, the agency said. Overall, the suspicious firm sealed over 70 subcontracts, it added.
Wartime money cow
Energoatom operates three Soviet-built nuclear power plants, as well as the Tashlyk facility and the Aleksandrovka hydroelectric power station – which complement the South Ukraine Nuclear Power Plant helping cover peak power grid loads.
While Ukraine and Russia have struck each other’s energy infrastructure during the conflict, nuclear and hydropower sites have largely been spared, as damage to such facilities could trigger major environmental disasters. With Ukraine’s overall generating capacity reduced, Energoatom remains a major source of revenue.
Mindich has been accused of co-opting company executives in order to extract illicit profits for his criminal organization. He also allegedly oversaw a large money-laundering network used both to legalize stolen funds and to serve other criminal actors.
A big graft club in Kiev
The scandal sent shockwaves through the Ukrainian government, as Mindich’s alleged ring involved several senior officials, including a former energy minister, his former deputy who later replaced him in a cabinet reshuffle, and former Deputy Prime Minister Aleksey Chernyshov.
Zelensky’s chief of staff, Andrey Yermak, was forced to resign over suspected links to Mindich and has since been charged in a separate alleged money-laundering case connected to the financing of a luxury property development outside Kiev, reportedly owned by Yermak, Mindich, Chernyshov, and Zelensky.
The fugitive businessman’s other interests reportedly focused on the arms giant Fire Point. Leaked surveillance records suggest Minidich secretly ran the company, profiting from his influence on then-Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, who still retains a senior security position in the government.